Shirt



PATENTED SEPT. 20, 1904'.

J. ENGEL.

SHIRT.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 4. 1903.

NO MODEL.

W] TNESSES:

Patented September 20, 1904. I

PATENT OFFICE...

JACOB ENGEL, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

SHIRT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 770,714, dated September 20, 1904. Application filed March 4, 1903. Serial No. 146,057. (No model.)

To all whom it 77MI/Z/ concern: I

Be it known that I, JACOB ENGEL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Milwaukee, county of Milwaukee, and State of Wisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Shirts, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in shirts, with especial reference to the construction of the yoke and fly-front.

The object of the invention is to provide a form of construction by means of which the following advantages may be obtained:

First. The yoke is made to strengthen or reinforce the neck-hole and prevent the collar from wearing the body of the shirt. The yoke also serves to prevent the neck-hole from be ing stretched or pulled out of shape during the operation of applying the neckband and stitching the body portions.

Second. The fly-front cooperates with the yoke in securing and protecting the ends of the yoke at the front of the neck-hole and also provides a smooth front having no exposed buttons or buttonholes, the front being separately formed, whereby the buttonholes may be made and stitched before the front is applied to the shirt.

Third. The separate formation of the flyfront saves time and labor and takes up less space in the manufacture of the garments than is required where the entire garment passes through the hands of the buttonhole-maker. The garments are left in better condition than they would be if handled by the buttonholemaker, where they are frequently soiled and wrinkled through the operation of forming the buttonholes.

Fourth. My invention also provides a form of construction in which no buttons are exposed to be torn off by ironing devices used at the laundry. Regard is also had for a form of construction in which the above advantages can be secured without requiring material in excess of that ordinarily used in making a shirt, the parts in which my improvements are embodied being formed from material which is otherwise wasted.

In the following description reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front view of the shirt emence character through the several views.

The central portion of the yoke is widened along its forward edge, and the yoke is provided with a central neck-hole located par- 7 tially in the forwardly-extending portion, with a slit extending outwardly from the neck-hole to the marginal edge of the yoke. This marginal edge is curved substantially in conformity to the edge of the neck-hole, forming narrow strips 3, the ends of which will abut when the yoke is in a fiat position. These strips and yoke-tongues 3 are adapted to reinforce the neckband of the shirt at the front and can be adjusted to the neckband without causing the yoke to wrinkleor to be drawn out of shape. This result is due in part to the fact that the strips or tongues 8 have both edges substantially parallel and also to the fact that when the yoke is in a fiat position the edges of the strips meet, as shown at 4 in Fig. 2. The meeting ends of the yoke-tongues are covered by the iiy-front, as hereinafter explained, and the edges of the yoke around the neck-opening are covered by a band .5 of ordinary construction. The fly-front is formed of a piece of clotlnhaving a notch 6 at its lower end, leaving a projecting tongue 7. The cloth is folded along the dotted lines a, b, 0, and (Z to form a series of superposed strips 8, 9, 10, and 11 and is stitched to the body of the garment at one side of the front slit 12, the stitching being indicated at 13 and 14 in Fig. 4. The raw edge of the strip 8 is doubled under, as shown at 15 in Fig. 4;. It will be observed that this construction leaves two free folded edges at o and d. The strips 8 and 9 are secured to each other by a line of stitching at c and the strips 10 and 11 by a line of stitching at f. The buttonholes 20 are formed in the strips 10 and 11, as shown, the marginal stitching of the buttonhole passing through both strips. The buttonholes are covered by the strips 9 and 10, so that the buttons 19 are not visible on the exterior surface of the front. In Fig. 4 portions 17 and 18 of the body of the shirt are shown on opposite sides of the front slit 12, and one of the buttons is shown engaging in a buttonhole 20.

By providing the lower end of the front with the projecting portion 7 the stiffness of the front when starched will not inconvenience the wearer as it would if the entire front was made to terminate abruptly at one point. The projecting tongue 7 being more flexible than the other portions of the front it serves also to keep the shirt smooth at this point. The front is secured to the shirt by lines of crossstitching 21 and 22, the latter serving to secure the tongue 7 to the body.

With the described construction it will be seen that both the yoke and the fly-front may be made of comparatively small pieces of material, the same being, in fact, made from material which would be otherwise wasted in cutting out the shirt from strips of cloth of ordinary dimensions. By providing the tongues 3 on the yoke the yokes may be made narrow at the ends, covering merely the crown of the shoulder and about six inches of the back. I am thus enabled to use the irregular strips of waste after cutting out the body portions of the shirt from the cloth and am also enabled to shorten the back in proportion to the width of the back portion of the yoketo wit, about six inches. The yoke may be either single or double thickness.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a shirt a fly-front comprising a rectangular piece of fabric folded upon itself to form a series of pairs of superposed doubled strips, with the side edges of said fabric projecting in the same direction and secured to the body of the shirt by separate lines of stitching; the

inner strips being of less width than the outer strips and having buttonholes underneath the outer strips.

2. In a shirt, a fly-front comprising a piece of fabric doubled upon itself to form a series of pairs of superposed folded strips, each pair of strips being independently stitched to the shirt-front on one side of the front slit, and the stitching of the outer pair of strips being farthest from'the front slit, whereby the stitching of the inner strip is covered by the outer strip.

3. In a shirt, a fiy-front comprising a piece of fabric, doubled upon itself to form a series of pairs of superposed folded strips, the side edges of the material forming said strips being secured to the body of the shirt along two different lines, but on the same side of said front, the inner pair of said folded strips being provided with buttonholes underneath the outer strips.

4. In a shirt, a shoulder-yoke having its central portion wider than the end portions, and having a central neck-hole near the front of the central portion with a slit extending outwardly to the marginal front edge of the yoke; said marginal edge being curved substantially in conformity to the edge of the neck-hole and forming narrow strips 3 of substantially uniform diameter, having meeting ends when the yoke is in a fiat position, and adapted to reinforce and facilitate the attachment of the neckband of the shirt.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JACOB ENGEL.

Witnesses:

LoUIs GoTTsoHALK, JAs. B. ERWIN. 

